Showbiz lore is that when sibling double act Mike and Bernie Winters played the notoriously tough Glasgow Empire – a venue known as “the comic’s graveyard” – during the Sixties, Mike’s solo opening skit was met with stony silence. When Bernie bounded on-stage to join his brother, a despairing voice came from the audience: “F— me, there’s two of them!”
Those resistant to the charms of Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor might have felt something similar during Doctor Who (BBC One). For reasons not entirely clear (something to do with separate realities in the multiverse), there were suddenly three identical Doctors dashing around time and space. When a fourth tipped up in a slightly different coat, viewers could be forgiven for “going a bit Glasgow Empire”.
Six-part story Flux reached its crescendo with a closing chapter titled The Vanquishers. It was set on Sunday 5 December 2021 – the date of the apocalypse, apparently, so thank you for finding time to read this review before the world ends. After a patchy puzzle of a series, could writer Chris Chibnall stick the landing? Sadly not.
In an hour-long episode which once again hopped breathlessly between locations and timelines, the Doctor battled several “big bads”. Ravager villains Swarm and Azure (Sam Spruell and Rochenda Sandall) wanted time to destroy space. Spud-headed soldiers The Sonatarans planned to exploit the Flux cataclysm by luring fellow warmongers The Daleks and Cybermen to their destruction.
Averting these catastrophes involved scientific gobbledegook, lots of running and a risky plan. I counted four Doctors, 11 companions and half-a-dozen villains. Whatever happened to good against evil? This was more like Goodcorp Inc versus Evil United FC. Few characters were given enough to do. Jemma Redgrave’s trusty UNIT leader got to introduce herself with a knowing “The name’s Stewart… Kate Stewart” but was barely glimpsed again.
It rang alarm bells when the Doctor kept giving herself things-to-do lists to clumsily remind viewers what was happening: “Infiltrate Sontarans, stop The Flux, keep everyone alive, escape Swarm, put myself back together.” Wait, you forgot “buy milk, post Christmas cards, write comprehensible plot”.
Chibnall had so many loose ends to tie up, the Doctor being in three places at once felt like a logistical necessity, rather than a creative decision. As Doc conversed with Doc, she was essentially spouting plot exposition at herself, as if this was a script workshop rather than the finished product.
